HSC and Atlantic Council host series of events on oil theft

The modalities of oil theft range from low-level tapping, siphoning, adulteration and smuggling, to extremely sophisticated maritime operations involving extensive networks of actors, to brazenly corrupt dynamics in which states lose billions of dollars per year while their officials profit from those losses. At peak prices, tapping a Mexican pipeline of refined oil for only seven minutes could earn a cartel $90,000. In 2012 alone, hydrocarbons fraud cost the EU €4 billion in lost revenues. In Nigeria, 30% of all hydrocarbons products are smuggled into neighboring states.

In support of this publication, the London-based foreign policy think-tank Human Security Centre (HSC) and the Washington-based think-tank Atlantic Council have over the last week co-hosted a series of events on an event on Downtream Oil Theft. The events took place at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London on 21st March 2017, Cercle de Lorraine in Brussels on 22nd March, and at Cercle de l’Union interalliee in Paris on 23rd March. Principle speakers included Dr. Ian M Ralby, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, ambassador Richard Morningstar (Ret.), Founding Director and Chairman of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, and Eric Besson, former French Minister Industry, Energy, and Digital Economy.